The morphological differences between early and late Americans were real, but they did not reflect a replacement of one founding group by another.

They reflected normal variation within a single founding population over time.

This resolution had been anticipated by many geneticists and archaeologists who had never found the morphological evidence for the Paleoamerican hypothesis convincing.

But having it confirmed by direct genetic analysis of the ancient individuals at the center of the debate was different from arguing against the hypothesis on theoretical grounds.

The bones themselves — or rather, the molecules within the bones — had spoken.